BREMERTON — You might not see them, dwarfed among four mammoth aircraft carriers, but three frigates are also part of the Navy’s local mothball fleet. The third, USS Jarrett, arrives July 15 from its former homeport of San Diego to join sister ships USS George Philip and USS Sides. They’re moored a
t the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility along Highway 304, awaiting their fates.
The Jarrett, which served just 27 years, will be put up for sale, according to the Navy’s Southwest Regional Maintenance Command. It will be scrapped if there are no buyers in the next couple of years. The other frigates, commissioned for just 22 years, drew interest from Portugal and Turkey, but neither deal went through.
The Navy is decommissioning Perry-class frigates because their role of anti-submarine warfare and protecting amphibious warships and convoys is being taken over by new littoral combat ships and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
Bremerton’s inactive carriers — USS Ranger, USS Constellation, USS Kitty Hawk and USS Independence — can become museums or memorials, be sunk during target practice or for artificial reefs, or be recycled. The Kitty Hawk is being kept in reserve until 2015 when the new Gerald Ford comes on board, then Wilmington, N.C., wants it for a floating museum alongside the battleship North Carolina. All of the other ships have been stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. A nonprofit group is working to get Ranger to Fairview, Ore., to serve as a naval and aerospace museum, educational center and place for special events.
Independence and Constellation were stripped to support the active carrier fleet, and will probably be scrapped in a couple of years.
The ships, except for the Kitty Hawk, are in Reserve Category X, meaning they get no maintenance or preservation, and are only protected against fire, flooding and theft. The Kitty Hawk is in Category B and is maintained in case it’s needed in an emergency.
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility also has a Category Z, for inactive nuclear-powered ships and submarines waiting to be recycled. They include the guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach, NR-1 Deep Submergence Craft, and 16 fast attack submarines — USS Salt Lake City, USS Atlanta, USS Augusta, USS Hyman G. Rickover, USS Minneapolis-St. Paul, USS Portsmouth, USS Baltimore, USS Phoenix, USS Indianapolis, USS New York City, USS Birmingham, USS Groton, USS Cincinnati, USS Omaha, USS Los Angeles and USS Narwhal..
——
Information from: Kitsap Sun, http://www.kitsapsun.com/
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
